HOROWHENUA COUNTY COUNCIL

Levin Daily Chronicle, 12 February 1918, Page 3

HOROWHENUA COUNTY COUNCIL

The montlily meeting oi tlie Horowhenua County Council \» uo ui'iu ». " .uiuiixg. x'reseut: Us (j. A. Jlouli t,in tne cnanv, x<. 0. liyder, ur. V. Catley, to. xJruadUelt, A Murray, J. iUCJjeavey, VV . J. x>ryant, o . It. H hyte ana ill. La,w. Accounts were passed for payment as follows: Crenerai, loans and. interest, iiiuuj payment out oi loans, COititiii&ruiN .L>iv\ CE.

xlie jvairangu County Council forwarded a resolution ioi» endorsement asking tlie Government to reduce railway freight on consignments of tar, bitumen, etc. tor use in roadmakmg, bridgebuilding and similar work to at least one-half the present charge. —The Chairman thought the porposal was a step in tne right direction. Cr JXyder considered benzine might be added. A motion to support the resolution was carried unanimously. Air E. Alacdonald, Te Horo, wrote: " Re Kahihika-Pahiko drain mutter, iliaving faithfully discharged my duty on behalf of the recent settlers' meeting in es- ' timating and assessing the cost of the work decided upon, I must in justice to myself state that my personal opinion is that the previous work will be of little bene-, fit to anyone, and certainly none to me."—Received.

Five ratepayers on t] le Ivuku I East road complained of the bad state of the road and asked that it be metalled for the whole of its length before next winter and 15 chains at the top end formed.— Cr McLeavey and the Engineer were authorised to see into the matter. Mr M. Cliristensen, of Ohau, wrote stating that the road in front of their place was "'absolutely .used for a stock yard, about 9 cows and also horses grazing there every day and pulling down the fences to get at the feed." The writer offered to buy the road which ran wholly through their property.—Referred to Cr McLeavey and the Engineer with power to act.

Mr B. L. Ellis, Te Horo, asked that a culvert be put in at his new entrance gate.—lief erred to Cr Catley with power to act.

The Public Works Department' forwarded proclamation taking land for road and closing road through Block IV, Kaitawai Survey District.

A letter was received from Mr E. S. Pees asking for several improvements on the Gladstone road and it was referred to the Crs. for the riding.

I THE KUKLT WATER It ACE. Crs McLeavey, Ryder and Bryant reported on the Kuku irrigation scheme as follows: "We inspected the works on January IT together with several of the farmer® interested and we are all of the one opinion, that the whole scheme is a dismal failure for the simple reason that the stream which has been tapped for It-he purpose of providing the water is not nearly large enough. We are told by some of the settlers who live in the locality that the stream goes dry in a dry summer. We saw several leaks in the pipes, also on e broken in two, but as we did not have the specifications with us we cannot say whether the contract has been carried out according to these. We hope to be able to bring some other proposal before the Council at its next meeting."

It was pointed out by t'he Chairman that the settlers interested were confident at the outset that would be sufficient water and they must take the responsibility. The Engineer proposed that I'ife rams be installed lower down the stream and he considered the present supply. They had. oj ajqn aq pjnoAv however, to wait for the rams as they had to be imported. Messrs Horn and Bowling waited on fhe Council on the matter.

Mr Horn declared the scheme was a failure nnd asked if the Council could do anything to improve matters. He admitted the settlers had erred in considering there would be sufficient water. It. was decided to await word concerning the ra m s before doing anything forth or.

G 'XEHAL. On the motion of Or Ryder, seconded by Cr Bryant, it wa« decided: "That the member for the district- Mr "W. H. lield, be requested to arrange with the Minister for Public Works to receive a daputa-tion from this Council re tlie widening* of a portion of ill© Main Couiitv road between le Horo and Waikanae, the Engineer in the meantime to pi*epaie estimate of the cost of the work; Mr Field also to endeavour to get the Minister for Railways to receive the same deputation re^ level crossing south of the Otaki station, the deputation to be Crs Ryder, Catlev and the Chairman, together with 1 the County Engineei. The Chairman said tlio Minister had a grant on the Esti m a es of £250 for the road. There was also on the Estimates a sum of £400 for another road. It was proposed to ask the Minister to divert the latter amount, and instead of asking £1 fmrn the Council to accept- 10s for every £1 Tt was srenerallv agreed that this part of the road was the worst in the County. Cr McLeavev called attention to the state of the Gladstone road whirls had been cut up through wood carting. It was decided to ask the carters to repair the damage as they had promised. ,It was decided to |instruct the Ranger to impound all stock wandering on the roads in the Otaki, Te Horo and Tokomaru ridings. ENGINEER'S REPORT. Wirokino riding: T have luu] all the new roads in the riding trimmed in and in most cases blj£ded

with a thin coat of blinding mat- , . erials, clay for preference, but where that was unprocurable soil; rolling is useless without something being used; the agents lead me to expect the scarifier at any time and I wish it was here. The clearing and deepening of the Koputaroa stream is in hand again and good progress is being ■ made as the stream is very low. | I have a good deal of river protec- j tion work that requires doing us j toon as possible, but I have so far j been unable to get anyone to cart ; stones; the most important works are the Kimberley road crossing's of the Ohau. The Fox- J ton road is not improving with waiting; I hope it will not have to wait much longer as it is very ' bad in some places. j Tokomaru Riding.—Nothing is . being done in the riding but met- { fJling and this will go on for a i week or" two yet; I think we had better go on and make a job of it when Ave are about if; if we do, j little will be needed next year. j There are several of the old box ' culverts across the main rond on the Tokomaru end of the main rond that will have to be replaced -j with cement pipes at once; there is one now near the end of the 1 "Victoria road that has partiy fal- \ len in now and this I will get re- 1 placed as soon as the metal drays | are on tof the way